What to do and see in Province of Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna: The Best Shopping

Reviewed By Brun066 - Florence, Italy

My appreciation for the "Palazzo dei Diamanti" comes from three main reasons. Firstly this palace, with its diamond point bosses (hence the name), is to be considered one of the most beautiful of the Italian Renaissance. Secondly, it can even be considered a symbol of Ferrara, which from this point of view could even overstretch the Estense Castle. I try to justify my statement; and I will devote most of my review to this goal. The palace is suitable to symbolize Ferrara not only and not so much for its intrinsic beauty, but because it reveals the way that the architect Biagio Rossetti followed, between 1492 and 1505, to create the so-called "Addizione Erculea" . This is the name of the operation by which Rossetti (on behalf of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara) in fact doubled the size of once medieval Ferrara, creating new city north of the existing one, and organizing it with a gridiron of streets. The similarity of this gridiron with the orthogonal plan cities created in the Hellenic world on the model of Hippodamus by Miletus, or with the cities founded or re-founded by the Romans, or finally with the "Terre Nuove" (new settlements; cities founded from scratch) spread throughout Europe in the second part of the Middle Ages, must not deceive: according to scholars (and in particular to the historian Bruno Zevi, 1918-2000), it's only in the case of Ferrara that the city sees the orthogonal plan organized regardless of the needs of immediate expansion; so that the inhabitants of sixteenth century Ferrara will call it not "Terra Nuova", but "Aria Nuova" (new air), to indicate that the new city consists precisely of air, and not of buildings. The gridiron exists, the buildings will then come. To safeguard the cornerstones of its urban creation, however, and to prevent them from being distorted in the future, Rossetti "blocks" some fundamental intersections and squares, immediately edifying a few but strategic buildings. One of these (and the most illustrious) is Palazzo dei Diamanti, which is therefore established as the cornerstone of what Zevi calls "the first operation of modern urban planning in Europe". The third reason for my appreciation stems from the quality of the artistic exhibitions that have been held in the building since many years. Right now, the exhibition of the painter Giuseppe De Nittis is in progress (and I have just visited it), an Italian who lived mainly in Paris. In past years, I have been able to admire the exhibitions on Joan Mirò (2008), on Joseph Turner and Italy (2008-2009), on Jean Simeon Chardin (2010-2011), on Francisco de Zurbaràn (2013-2014). They were all excellent exhibitions, which honored the city of Ferrara.